One of the most frustrating things, in my opinion, with website design is the limited use of fonts available. Sure, there are images that you can use to get the font that you want. There is also Flash. Both look great, but when you are considering other factors such as download time and search engine optimization your great font sometimes get the backseat due to either usability or because you want have people to find your website with search engine optimization.

Things are looking up though. As recent as June 20, 2008, search engines have the ability to read Flash files and extract text and links. In particular, Google and Adobe announced a new algorithm for indexing textual Flash content. However, hoping that search engines can decipher your Flash is not a substitute substitute for providing indexable HTML content as explained by Rand Fishkin in Flash and SEO - Compelling Reasons Why Search Engines & Flash Still Don't Mix, and Vanessa Fox in Search-Friendly Flash?. This all means that for now, it looks like for now we will continue to use the eight typefaces (Arial, Comic Sans, Helvetica, Tahoma, Times, Times New Roman, Trebuchet and Verdana) while mixing in a few cool fonts and of course some rockin' graphics.

As the world of the web and search engines is ever changing, we'll be waiting with bated breath for the standard web font selection to expand.